Congress, NC Arrive At Seat-Sharing Formula For J&K Assembly Polls. Details Here

The two parties, which announced their alliance for the J&K polls, have arrived at an agreement on 85 out of 90 seats in the Union Territory.

Congress and NC have arrived at seat-sharing formula for J&K polls.

Source : PTI

The Congress and the National Conference have arrived at a seat-sharing agreement for the upcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. 

The two parties, which announced their alliance for the J&K polls, have arrived at an agreement on 85 out of 90 seats in the Union Territory.

The Congress will contest in 32 out of the 85 seats, while the National Conference will fight on 51 seats and there will be a friendly fight in 5 seats, Congress J&K chief Tariq Hameed Karra told reporters on Monday. 

The alliance have also allotted one seat each for CPI(M) and Panthers Party.

#WATCH | On seat sharing between Congress and National Conference for Jammu & Kashmir Assembly elections, the state Congress chief, Tariq Hameed Karra says, "...National Conference will contest on 51 seats, Congress on 32 and we have agreed to have a friendly but disciplined… pic.twitter.com/mopbnTsArS

— ANI (@ANI) August 26, 2024

"National Conference will contest on 51 seats, Congress on 32 and we have agreed to have a friendly but disciplined contest on 5 seats. Over and above these 88 seats, we have left 1 seat for CPI (M) and 1 seat for Panthers Party," Karra said.

The announcement comes hours after the Congress high command rushed two senior leaders to Jammu and Kashmir to iron out seat sharing talks with National Conference. Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Salman Khurshid met NC president Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah in Srinagar after Omar said that both the parties were "stuck on some seats."  

The last date of filing nomination for the first phase of polling is Tuesday (August 27). 

After the seat sharing announcement, Omar Abdullah, while responding to media queries, said that the was no objections by the Congress Party on the NC manifesto.

"Let me be categorical: at no point did the Congress party raise any objections to our manifesto. In the initial stages of discussions at the local level, they asked whether we would consider some sort of common minimum programme. We made it very clear to them that a common minimum programme is typically formulated after receiving a verdict from the people—meaning after winning an election. If the National Conference and Congress receive the people's support, then we will form a common minimum programme for governance for the next five years. We did not discuss our manifesto with Congress, nor did we ask Congress what they would include in their manifesto," Omar Abdullah told reporters.

Jammu and Kashmir is going to polls for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases -- September 18, September 25 and October 1. The counting of votes will be held on October 4.